Every day teams perform dozens of repetitive actions: reassign tasks, send notifications, update statuses, request approvals. Each one takes a minute or two, but combined they add up to hours of lost time every week.

Workflow automation removes the drudgery and reduces the chance of errors. In this guide we explore how to build automations in FlowEra without writing code.

What Is Workflow Automation

Automation is a set of rules: "when event X happens, perform actions Y and Z." Instead of remembering every step and doing them manually, you describe the process once and the system runs it automatically.

Examples:

  • When a task moves to "Done," notify the manager.
  • When a "Bug" type task is created, assign it to the QA lead.
  • Every Monday at 9 AM, create a "Weekly Report" task.
  • When a customer fills out a form, create a task and send a confirmation email.

The Visual Builder

FlowEra provides a visual automation builder — the Reaction Builder. Processes are built from blocks connected by lines, like a flowchart. No code required.

Main block types:

  • Trigger — the entry point. What starts the process.
  • Condition — a branch. Data check to choose a path.
  • Action — what to do: update, create, send, call an API.
  • Wait — a pause until an event occurs or time expires.

Triggers

A trigger defines when the automation fires:

Event Trigger

Reacts to system changes: node creation, field update, task move, comment added. You specify the event type and an optional filter.

Schedule Trigger

Runs on a schedule — daily, weekly, monthly, or a custom cron expression. Great for regular tasks and reports.

Webhook Trigger

Accepts HTTP requests from external systems. Each automation with a webhook trigger gets a unique URL you can share with an external service. Signature verification is supported for security.

Conditions and Branching

Conditions let you route the process along different paths. Use expressions to check data:

  • data.priority == "high" — check priority.
  • data.amount > 10000 — numeric comparison.
  • event.type == "node.updated" — check event type.

Expressions use the sandboxed expr-lang engine with access only to task and event data. No filesystem or network access.

Actions

Update Data

Change node fields: status, assignee, priority, custom fields.

Create Node

Create a new task, article, or any other node with specified fields.

Send Notification

Notify a specific user or everyone in an org unit.

Send Email

Email with template support and variable substitution from task data.

Call External API

HTTP request to an external service with data payload. Supports GET, POST, PUT, PATCH, DELETE. Headers and body are configurable with variable substitution.

Approvals

The approval block pauses the process and waits for a decision from a designated person or group. Supported features:

  • Single-level approval — one person decides.
  • Multi-level — sequential chain of approvals.
  • Delegation — forwarding the decision to another person.
  • Timeout escalation — if no decision is made in time, the request escalates upward.

Automation Templates

Do not want to build from scratch? FlowEra offers a library of ready-made templates:

  • Expense approval process
  • New employee onboarding
  • Incoming request handling
  • Weekly task digest

Pick a template, adapt it to your process, and launch.

Practical Examples

Example 1: Customer Request Handling

Trigger: webhook from a website form. Action: create a task in the "New" column, assign to the on-duty manager, send a confirmation email to the customer.

Example 2: Auto-Escalation

Trigger: task in "In Progress" status for over 3 days. Condition: priority is "high." Action: notify the manager, add an "Escalation" label.

Example 3: Weekly Report

Trigger: schedule, every Friday at 5 PM. Action: gather task counts by status, send an email summary to the manager.